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Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], National Organization for Women, West Virginia and Morgantown Chapters, Records, A&M 3247, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

History of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in Morgantown, West Virginia (WV)

The Morgantown NOW chapter was founded/convened as the Morgantown-Fairmont (Mor-Fair) chapter under the leadership of the first WV NOW president, Jennifer Hipp, MSW/Ph.D., in the early 1970s. Dr. Lillian J. Waugh (WVRHC A&M 4518) became involved when she moved to Morgantown in July 1973, and many of the records in this collection document her involvement in NOW at the local, state, and national levels.

Letty (then Stewart) Lincoln and Barbara Nailler, who was living in Fairmont, were the initial driving forces behind the Mor-Fair chapter, which split into two chapters during the mid-1970s' gasoline crisis. Morgantown flourished; Fairmont didn't. West Virginia University (WVU) faculty, staff, and students furnished the largest numbers of new members.

Morgantown NOW had a very strong Consciousness Raising Task Force whose members did public speaking that strengthened their ties to political action.

The Morgantown, Charleston, and Martinsburg chapters, in particular, had a strong emphasis on changing state and national laws related to violence against women. Morgantown NOW's Rape Task Force was pivotal in that regard and enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with the Women's Information Center (WIC) under the leadership of Rev. Reba Thurmond, Methodist Campus Minister. (WIC records are at also at the West Virginia and Regional History Center [WVRHC] as A&M 3635.) In the fall of 1973 women from both town and gown constituencies coalesced to found Rape Information Services, which then became the Rape and Domestic Violence Information Center (RDVIC). (Some early records of the RDVIC can be found in this A&M collection.)

Given the emphasis on legal reforms and attendant lobbying at the state and national level, WV NOW Chapters became proving grounds for the entry of feminist activists into elective office. These included Sondra Lucht (Martinsburg, state Senator), Bonnie Brown (Charleston, House of Delegates) (WVHRC Collection A&M 4511), and Barbara Evans Fleischauer (Morgantown, House of Delegates) (WVRHC A&M 4507). All three women served both as home and state chapter presidents.

Morgantown NOW was also pivotal in providing significant support to National NOW: Sandra Reeves Roth of Wadestown, a WVU psychology graduate, served two terms as national NOW secretary under Ellie Smeal's presidency. Beth Leopold left her WNPB position to work in field organizing and public relations. And Sheri O'Dell (now deceased) of Charleston was a member of Smeal's leadership team as well in the last half of the 1970s and early 1980s.

Morgantown NOW became well-known for its success in taking busloads of activists to marches in Washington, D.C., for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and pro-choice rallies, and regularly raised funds to support a lobbyist during the state legislative sessions for the last quarter of the 20th century.

Morgantown NOW members were also central to the development of Women's Studies at WVU in the mid 1970s and early 1980s. (That history is available through archives of the Center for Women's Studies at the WVRHC at WVU.)

State NOW chapters coordinated their work through the state council and held state-wide conferences for many years.

Scope and Contents

Initial Acquisition of 1997/02/03:

1970-1989; 2 ft. 11 in. (2 records cartons, 1 document case); Administrative records of National Organization for Women (NOW), West Virginia Chapter, including records of task forces on the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion, and discrimination. There are also records of efforts to lobby the state legislature on behalf of women, as well as papers documenting relations with other civic groups on issues of economics, education, labor, and racism.

Addendum of 2008/10/15:

1971-1990; 2 ft. 1 in. (1 records carton, 2 flat storage boxes, 1 card file box); Includes correspondence, reports, newsletters, press releases, newspaper articles, broadsides, photographs, and artifacts (t-shirts, buttons, and pennant) documenting NOW's advocacy of womens' rights. There are two folders of records of the first President Letty Lincoln dating from ca. 1971-1977; and records of President Lillian Waugh dating from ca. 1976-1988. Some records and artifacts relate to the campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). There is also a styrofoam boater hat worn at ERA events by Lillian Waugh in 1981 and 1982; a t-shirt labeled "Mondale Ferraro NOW" from the 1984 US Presidential election; and a video tape (motion picture) titled "Volunteering: A Reassessment" from 1997. Many records relate to activities of NOW members from Morgantown, West Virginia.

This addendum is minimally processed.

Special Note:

The styrofoam boater hat in this collection belonged to Dr. Lillian J. Waugh, a founder of the Morgantown NOW chapter, who wore it for the Morgantown NOW June 30, 1981, ERA Countdown Benefit at Maxwell's Restaurant; for the last ERA walkathon in Charleston, West Virginia, on August 22, 1981; for the October 1981 demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., during the National NOW Conference there in support of the ERA; and at the March 14, 1982, 10th anniversary celebration for the Morgantown NOW chapter. The names in the hat are signatures of those who attended the October 1981 demonstration: Sandy Roth, Ellie Smeal, Marnie Delaney, Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and Gil Bernard.

Separated Material

To book collection: "The Third Wave and West Virginia" by Lyle Sattes, 1996.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Activism
• National Organization for Women. Morgantown Chapter
• National Organization for Women. West Virginia Chapter
• Nonprofit organizations
• Political activism.
• Women
• Women -- Equal Rights Amendment
• Women -- Roles in society
• Women political activists
• Women's rights